THE ARMY PUTS GOD ON LEAVE

It was said with approval and without dispute during World War II that “there are no atheists in the foxholes.” The army has fixed that up with an order to its chaplains to eliminate all reference to God and religious philosophy in moral indoctrination lectures to recruits. The busybody American Civil Liberties union prompted the order by suggesting that God might be unpopular with unbelievers.

The old army character guidance manual held that America’s doctrine of freedom regarded “man as a creature of God. As such,” it continued, “every soldier is responsible and accountable to his Creator for the way he performs his civil and military duty, for the maintaining of his own and his nation’s honor, and for the quality of service he renders to his country as a soldier.”

It takes a very finicky mind to find something objectionable in that, for God and the Creator are nondenomina-tional and the chaplain corps provides for the spiritual life of Protestants, Catholics, and Jews. Faith and the consolations of religion have sustained Americans on the battlefield since George Washington prayed for his men.

Does anyone think we have a better army if it is atheistic, like the Red army of Russia, or if it is lacking in any scruples of morality, as were the North Korean savages who beat the helpless men of the Pueble crew? This country needs not less, but more, spirituality — all, in fact, that it can find.

From a Newspaper Editorial

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